Judge Faults Army Corps Assessment

A federal judge ruled Friday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers erred in not assessing the wider environmental impacts of building a biotechnology park on Mecca Farms, handing the Scripps Florida project a potentially serious setback.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sided with environmentalists who had argued that the Army Corps illegally issued a permit that helped launch construction of a 535-acre piece of a planned 1,919-acre medical science-themed research park and village.

The decision, finding the permit in violation of federal environmental law, does not halt the project, which began in earnest after last Friday's ceremonial groundbreaking involving Gov. Jeb Bush.

The judge asked all parties involved to deliver suggestions to remedy the permit problem within 10 days.

County Attorney Denise Neiman said she did not know if work would stop Monday: "There's nothing legally required," she said.

But County Administrator Bob Weisman said Friday: "It's reasonable to presume that the overall project will be delayed."

After a series of losses in court challenging various government approvals for the Mecca Farms location, environmentalists were thrilled by their first significant legal victory.

Attorney Richard Grosso, who argued the case on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club, said the ruling could cause the permit to be revoked. The Army Corps could be required, as environmentalists have sought, to conduct a more detailed, longer study looking not just at the core of the project but its overall effects on growth around it.

If Middlebrooks puts even a temporary hold on construction under way at Mecca Farms west of Palm Beach Gardens, it could throw the project into uncertainty, Governor's Office spokesman Russell Schweiss said.

It could harm The Scripps Research Institute's ability to recruit scientific talent to Florida and raise the cost of construction and materials, he said.

The court action could eventually jeopardize at least one major gift to Scripps. Retired Fortune 500 financier Lawrence J. DeGeorge and his wife, Florence, just last week pledged $5 million to the project -- provided that the first building is up at Mecca Farms within a year. Scripps Florida has collected millions more from other philanthropists.

"I'm on board, but if for some reason [environmentalists] were to prevail, and it got delayed ... we'll pull out," the financier said Friday.

Scripps $369 million infusion of state money has timetable strings too, requiring that Scripps meet annual hiring and equipment purchase levels. It's not clear how Friday's developments will affect the state's stake, said Marshall Criser, who heads a group monitoring that investment.

Ultimately, environmentalists are hoping to see Scripps Florida relocate to an urban setting, such as Jupiter's Briger Tract along Interstate 95 at Donald Ross Road, across from Florida Atlantic University's north campus, where Scripps scientists occupy temporary labs. They fear a Mecca Farms home will introduce tremendous growth too far into the rural west, too close to major swaths of county conservation land and open space.

The Army Corps, Grosso said, "basically pretended the rules didn't exist so they could do what the county wanted them to do" with the permit, he said. "The federal court is showing no tolerance for that."

Dr. Richard Lerner, Scripps' president, said in a statement: "Obviously, we are disappointed that there might be any further delay. However, we remain committed to working with the State of Florida and Palm Beach County to make Scripps Florida an even greater success than it already is."

The Governor's Office, and some Palm Beach County officials, expressed disappointment with the ruling, but said it just means the permit needs more work. They did not portray it as fatal to their current plan to place Scripps laboratories on Mecca Farms, a former orange grove.

"Our interpretation is this decision means the [Army] Corps needs to provide more information and analysis," Schweiss said. "Secondly, it's not a ruling that the Scripps project cannot be built on Mecca Farms. The state remains committed to Scripps and the Scripps choice of Mecca as its permanent site."

In his 62-page opinion, Middlebrooks said the Army Corps' decision to limit analysis of Scripps Florida to an initial phase about one-quarter of its eventual size, and find no significant environmental impact, was "arbitrary and capricious."

The Army Corps did not properly weigh the extension of PGA Boulevard, for example, and did not justify its claim that the 535-acre segment was independent enough of the rest of the plan for expansive development to warrant individual treatment, the judge said.

"The [Army] Corps failed to take the requisite `hard look' at all relevant environmental concerns," the judge wrote.

The Army Corps said it would not comment until it had a chance to go over the judge's ruling.